Monroe County Coroner's report: Suicide, overdoses, accidents take their toll

Thursday

Jan 24, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Drugs and alcohol caused the highest number of accidental deaths in Monroe County last year. Of the 67 deaths ruled accidental, 26 were due to overdoses. Motor vehicle crashes weren't far behind, with 22 deaths on the roads last year, according to a recently released report by the Monroe County Coroner's Office.

HOWARD FRANK

Drugs and alcohol caused the highest number of accidental deaths in Monroe County last year.

Of the 67 deaths ruled accidental, 26 were due to overdoses. Motor vehicle crashes weren't far behind, with 22 deaths on the roads last year, according to a recently released report by the Monroe County Coroner's Office.

The coroner's office investigates all accidental deaths, suicides, homicides and any suspicious deaths that occur in Monroe County.

It also investigates all deaths occurring in the emergency room or cases of those who are dead on arrival, and any deaths where the person was hospitalized or under a doctor's care for less than 24 hours.

The coroner also investigates all deaths where the final disposition is cremation, as required by state law, prior to the cremation process.

The report contained some other sobering statistics:

Guns and other weapons were used in almost two-thirds of all suicides in the county. Monroe had 27 suicides in each of the last two years. Hangings accounted for four suicides in 2012.

Homicides increased from three in 2011 to five in 2012. Weapons were used in three of those five homicides. Physical force and motor vehicle accidents accounted for the other two.

Cancer, cardiovascular disease and cardiac disease were the three leading causes of natural deaths, according to the report.

Cancer led all categories with 236 deaths, or one out of four natural deaths in the county. Cardiovascular disease accounted for 198 and cardiac disease reached 153.

Respiratory disease and Alzheimer's/dementia rounded out the top five causes of natural deaths, which together accounted for four of every five natural deaths investigated by the coroner in 2012.

Four deaths were listed with undetermined causes in 2012.

Undetermined deaths are from drug overdoses where intent can't be determined, according to Coroner Bob Allen.

"We have suicides that we can be 100 percent sure it was suicide, where they've taken a huge quantity of drugs," he said. "And we have people who have prescriptions who took too much and died, but we couldn't tell if it was intentional or accidental."

The deaths are only those that occurred in Monroe County. Any victim of a vehicle crash or other emergency who was flown to a Lehigh Valley hospital and died there would not have been investigated by the Monroe County Coroner or included in the report.

Ninety percent of all deaths in Monroe County were ruled natural deaths last year. Of the 107 ruled not natural, one of four was a suicide and a little more than one of five was a vehicle crash. Five percent were homicides.

October and November were the busiest months for the coroner's office with 101 investigations each. April saw the fewest investigations with 71.